


Delicate

by thismidnight



Category: The Handmaid's Tale (TV)
Genre: F/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 12:51:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14497377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thismidnight/pseuds/thismidnight
Summary: Missing scene for episode one of season two. My take on what happened when Nick came back and found June after she cut the red tag off her ear.





	Delicate

His heart drops into his stomach as soon as he comes around the corner. There’s so much blood. It’s all down her neck and in her hair and on the front of her white camisole. He can’t remember ever seeing so much blood before, and she’s standing still, too still, like she’s in a trance. Every hair on his body stands on end as he draws in a deep breath.

 

“Jesus Christ, June,” he calls out, crossing the floor in three long strides until he’s in front of her. “What happened?! Are you okay?” He can’t immediately see where the blood is coming from and his heart feels like it might beat out of his chest. Fifteen minutes ago she’d said she was okay. She wasn’t bleeding when she got here. Was she hurt and he hadn’t noticed because he was so relieved to see her? His mind is racing a mile a minute.

 

“I… I’m fine,” she begins, looking down at her hands. He notices they’re covered in blood too, and it makes his stomach turn. “It’s my ear,” she says, looking back up at him.

 

His mind is so preoccupied with her well being that it takes him a second to put it together. Her ear. Oh.

 

He looks behind her, the scissors he’d given her to cut her hair lay on the dusty floor, and they’re covered in blood too. His brow furrows in concern as he reaches out and pushes the sticky hair on the left side of her face back, revealing the angry gash on the top of her ear, red tag gone, blood still trickling out of the cut at a decent pace. He starts to open his mouth to speak but she beats him to it.

 

“I’m fine,” she reiterates, pushing his hand away from her face, “I had to get rid of it, it’s okay. I’m okay. It’s just a little blood.”

 

It isn’t okay and it’s way more than just a little blood, he thinks, as she turns away from him to go back and grab the bag of clothes he’d given her earlier.

 

“June, come sit down,” he says as she bends to pick up the discarded scissors. She shakes her head as she stands upright, moving towards the bag.

 

“June,” his tone is firmer now, but he’s careful not to raise his voice. “You’re still bleeding.”

 

“It’ll stop,” she says, kneeling next to the bag and unzipping it. She tosses the scissors into the bottom of the bag as he takes a deep breath through his nose.

 

“It’s a deep cut,” he tries to reason with her, keeping his voice level as he takes a step towards her.

 

“Nick, it’ll be fine,” she says, irritated, as she pulls a pair of pants out of the bag. “It doesn’t even hurt.”

 

“That’s your adrenaline talking,” he says as he watches her shakily rise to her feet. Her skin is pale as she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She needs to sit and stop the bleeding before it gets any worse. She keeps stubbornly pushing on, but none of that will matter if she loses too much blood now.

 

His eyes dart around the room until they spot a discarded folding chair leaning against the wall. He grabs it and brings it over to her, opening it, looking at her and then down at the chair until finally, after a brief standoff, she relents, sitting down and tossing the pants on the floor. He kneels next to her, placing one hand on her knee and using the other to gingerly brush the sticky hair back from where it’s fallen in her face again, and she hisses in pain as she recoils.

 

“Sorry,” he whispers as he leans up for a closer look. The bleeding has slowed a little now, but the skin around the cut is red and angry, and his worry shifts from blood loss to infection. “Wait here,” he tells her as he stands back up. He makes his way back to the car, popping the back hatch. All drivers are required to keep first aid kits in the car in case of emergency for their commanders, so he pulls that out from where he has it stored, along with a bottle of water from the front seat.

 

He’s surprised when he comes back to find that June hasn’t moved, but she’s sitting with her eyes closed, taking deep breaths through her nose. He imagines the pain is catching up to her now, so he starts moving with a sense of urgency.

 

“June,” he says and she opens her eyes. He offers the water bottle to her and she reaches out and takes it from him, quickly unscrewing the cap and taking a sip.

 

“Thanks,” she whispers and he nods as he kneels next to her again, setting the kit down on the ground and popping it open. He makes quick work of opening a package of gauze.

 

“Here,” he hands it to her as he takes the water bottle back. “Use pressure,” he tells her as she brings the gauze to her ear. She sits quietly, maintaining pressure on her ear, watching  as he pulls the bag of clothes over closer to them by the shoulder strap. He digs through it until he comes up with a grey cotton shirt. He lays it over his knee while he unscrews the cap of the water bottle before pouring a little on the shirt and soaking it.

 

“Nick, I need to put that on, what are you-” June starts but he cuts her off with a shake of his head.

 

“It’s fine, I packed extra,” he says as he caps the water bottle back up, turning his attention back to her. “We need to clean you up a little,” he says as he reaches up with the wet end of the shirt, carefully wiping the blood off her neck. She closes her eyes, the cool cloth soothing on her skin.

 

“Are you in any pain?” He asks, looking up at her and she nods in response.

 

“I have some painkillers in here,” he says, dropping the shirt on her lap and turning back to the first aid kit, “and antibiotics. You don’t want that to get infected,” he says, distracted, as he roots around in the first aid kit until he comes up with two small pill bottles. He’s just about to hand them to her when he hesitates, remembering something.

 

“I mean… is it safe? Can you take them with … you know, will the baby…” he stammers, feeling his face start to burn. He wants to kick himself, furious he didn’t stop to think about that before he offered them to her and also upset that he doesn’t actually know if it’s safe or not.

 

“I think I’ll be fine without them,” she says softly, having to resist the urge to smile at how flustered he is. “Thank you though.”

 

He nods, his mouth drawn in tight line as he drops the pills back into the kit. She pulls the now blood soaked gauze away from her ear and drops it on the ground as he leans in to take another look.

 

“How is it?”

 

“Better,” he replies easily, “The bleeding has almost stopped.”

 

“Good,” she replies, nodding. Quietly, he picks up the wet shirt and returns to wiping the now dried blood off her chest. She closes her eyes, enjoying the feel of the cool cloth removing the sticky blood from her skin. “Who’s coming to get me?” She asks, opening her eyes after a long beat.

 

He swallows hard as his hand stills. He was hoping this wouldn’t come up because he doesn’t want her to know how much he’s in the dark, how hard he had to fight just to find out where they’d be bringing her today so he could meet her. He has no idea who’s coming. He looks up at her and she’s waiting, looking expectantly.

 

“Someone I trust,” he says as he flips the shirt to the dry end, wiping away the water and blood still remaining on her skin. She purses her lips together and tilts her head to the side.

 

“Does this someone have a name?” She presses on and he gives her a look as he hands her the shirt so she can finish wiping off her face and her hair.

 

“I didn’t catch it,” he says as he stands up.

 

“You didn’t catch it?” She asks incredulously as she runs the wet shirt over her cheek. That doesn’t sound like him.

 

“Most people aren’t exactly jumping at the opportunity to reveal their identities when they help with stuff like this.” He says as he starts cleaning up the area. She looks up at him from the chair.

 

“Okay, well do you know what time they’ll be here for me?”

 

“Sometime after dark,” he replies tightly.

 

“They didn’t give you a time?” She asks as she stands. Somehow, she finds it very hard to believe he arranged all of this without knowing all of the details, so she’s not sure if his answers are vague because he’s bullshitting her or because he’s trying to protect her. She can’t decide which she’d rather it be, but either way, it irritates her. She’s as much a part of this as he is, and she needs to know what’s going on too.

 

“They don’t have a time, June. They just have to come whenever they get the opportunity.” He swallows hard, closing the first aid kit with more force than necessary. “Whenever it’s safe.”

 

That feels more like an honest answer to her, so she sighs, trying to let the irritation go.

 

“What about you?” She asks as she peels off her blood soaked top, stepping over and throwing it in the fire that’s still roaring in the background.

 

He watches for a long moment as she digs in the bag he’d brought and pulls out a brown shirt of his, pulling it over her head.

 

“The Commander thinks I’m out overseeing some of the parties that are searching for you.”

 

“Well... here I am. Mission accomplished,” she teases, eliciting a rare smile from Nick. She looks at him for a long moment before she continues.

 

“That means you don’t have to leave right away,” she states, taking a step towards him. “Will you stay?” she asks, even though she already knows the answer.

 

“Of course.”

**Author's Note:**

> feedback means everything! i literally wrote 85% of this on an airplane today so please excuse any typos or grammatical things. i proofread it but i'm exhausted from traveling all day so some things may have slipped through the cracks. i wanted to get this up before the next new episode though. find me on tumblr at splitscreen! 
> 
> also major props to my buddy and partner in trash crystal, because literally nothing would ever get done if it wasn't for her constant cheerleading.


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